#might also drop some month old threads??

[wishfulmuses]

I wanna be active again... who tryna write? 👀

[cptn-m]

Wind and Truth Review

This review is spoiler-free for Wind and Truth but may contain mild, implicit spoilers for previous Stormlight books.

Brandon Sanderson has a particular way of writing finales. They are big and bombastic and bring foreshadowing from the whole story to bear while plot threads cascade into one another, resolving in sequence. The POV begins to shift rapidly to accommodate the sheer amount of story in play and the prose becomes simple and plain - abandoning all pretense of subtlety - to stay out of the way of the action. Wind and Truth is an experiment with writing not just a final act but a whole final book in this style, for better and for worse.

WaT makes a rough first impression. Even with its aspirations of being a 1,300 page, foot-to-the-floor final act, it still needs to start with slower scenes to provide a calm before the storm and a chance for the cast to have intimate and emotional moments with their friends, family and partners before embarking into battles they know they might not return from. This section of the book does not gel with the simple prose and constant headhopping at all. Without explosive action to back it up, the language feels stilted and the prose seems to beat you over the head with the intended takeaway from every interaction. When you don't even get to spend a full chapter in one POV, it's hard to get immersed in the atmosphere of these would-be cosy scenes.

There's also a steady issue of humour and modernised language in these early chapters. A lot of quippy lines and juvenile bits that just do not land. And while Stormlight has always had the characters speak in a more modern tone compared to most other fantasy, it really pushes the limits of immersion here. Particularly in the therapy scenes - this is a world where the idea of any mental healthcare beyond 'ignore it' and 'stuff em in an asylum' is a couple of months old at most, but the cast is suddenly dropping recognisable technical real world terms for afflictions and coping strategies in a way that feels way too on the nose. Mental health has always been a big theme in Stormlight, but previous books had a little more faith in readers to put together what the characters were dealing with and which strategies helped them make positive progress without rubbing our noses in the precise therapy speak for it.

Finally, there are plot threads that while functional on a technical level never quite reach the levels of emotional connection they were supposed to have as the story buckles under the sheer size of its cast. Ten Heralds and nine Unmade (with ridiculous hyphenated names) on top of the actual main and supporting cast is a crazy amount for even the most dedicated reader to keep track of, and they most of them haven't had enough presence as individuals to cement a place in memory outside their collective. I was losing track of which ones we've seen before and which ones we've just heard of; which ones have been driven made by the centuries and who can still be reasoned with; who is associated with what abilities and has their fingerprints on which parts of this sprawling plot.

Things click more into place more after the opening downtime is out of the way and the plot gets in gear. The action that justifies the shallow prose starts to happen, and the big lore bombs and plot reveals overshadow the unsubtle and unfunny parts of the character writing.

The core conceit of this one is that both sides of the war know that the climactic, conflict-ending confrontation will happen in ten days and there will be no more gaining or losing territory after that point. For some of the core cast, this means a quest to complete or a puzzle to solve within the time limit to prepare for that last confrontation. For others, it means holding ground against an enemy who wants to control as much of the landmass as possible when the ceasefire is called. Sanderson somehow manages to leverage the time limit in two directions at once. When you're with the questers and puzzle solvers, ten days feels like a terrifyingly short amount of time to finish everything they're trying to do. But then the perspective shifts to a defender on the front lines, facing assault after assault, and ten days feels like an eternity to endure. The ability to turn the atmosphere from time pressure to survival marathon on a dime without feeling like it's contradicting itself is one of the great, redeeming victories of this book's writing.

The central arcs and personal journeys that the main characters have to face are also strong across the board, and do justice to the people we spent the past four books coming to know and love. The story feels deliberate and planned, with foreshadowing and loose ends from the first book through to the fourth finally coming together and paying off. Bombs drop, sending shockwaves that will define not just the direction of the second arc of the Stormlight Archive, but of all the connected works in the Cosmere going forward. While I'm in no hurry to do so, a reread of everything that's come before this with the benefit of hindsight will likely be a very rewarding experience. WaT feels like a vital seed for the planned endgame of Sanderson's one of a kind fantasy extended universe.

(That said, I might dock a point for some similarities to how the finale of the first Mistborn trilogy played out in terms of revealing ancient history and playing with the powers of competing gods. WaT changes enough that it's only one point, but I'll be disappointed if we get a third iteration of these ideas.)

Wind and Truth is everything Brandon Sanderson does well and everything he struggles with all amped up to eleven and put in a blender. It's bold and epic and conceptually ambitious with larger than life characters who are easy to love; and it's bloated and unsubtle and linguistically unambitious and frontloaded with "jokes" that are easy to hate. Sanderson claims WaT to be his most heavily edited book to date, but I have to assume that's all structural edits to fit all these plot threads into one tome without cutting so much they no longer make sense. There is no way to give a book this long the line by line polish it needs with only a year between the completion of the first draft and its release, and it shows. If you're already invested in this universe and these characters there's a lot here that will satisfy, but I hope the next big release gets a little longer in the oven to make the prose into something that lives up to the lofty narrative ideas.

[prof-ramses]

Hollow Sorrows Trailer Breakdown LET'S FUCKING GOOOOOO

Obviously, if you don't want spoilers, scroll away. If you've already seen the trailer, LET'S GO!!!

So when we first see possessed Patty, she looks mostly normal, you can't even see her demon teeth through the mask yet. John and Jack probably only came in since they heard a scream and/or struggle coming from the morgue.

So we get a shot of the boys being too chaotic, something Gregor points out and what will likely cause the "bad character development" Pelo ahs mentioned.

Also, since it's 100% what Pelo would do, Costume Bob is the guy in the HF suit. Mark my words.

The scene with the hatz is really interesting to me, since Skid and Pump just annoys Roy for a moment and leave. I think this might be all we get of the hatzgang this time, similar to how Frank only had a brief Appearance in Tender Treats. If my theory that episode 7 will focus on Roy is true, this little scene will be very interesting to dissect when the full episode drops.

We actually get out first proper glimpse at a new character and I think this old man is the very last character in the line up teaser

And there's also a pretty good chance he Roy's grandfather and given the way he reacts to the boys antics here, I can definitely see him being a another reasons Roy's the way he is.

If he actually is Roy's grandpa, then @crossover-enthusiast and I's Roy discussions are going to get really fun pretty soon.

Here, Skid is clearly holding a framed photo, meaning this will almost certainly be the first time his father is brought up directly.

Also, yeah, with Pump's line about "hangover spooky month", it seems my theory about Lila in this episode was at least half right.

Yet more proof that the boys' absent parents will be more of a focus. The trailer as a whole gives me some ideas regarding the Wonder parents, but I feel they're best saved for another time.

The boys get into trouble with the cops and I have 2 theories regarding when, either Gregor tries to get them sent home before going to the hospital, but they talk their way out of it, or they actually do get sent home at the end of the episode.

John's expression here immediately makes we think that something Skid or Pump said reminded him of his daughter. Another plot thread that has yet to be directly acknowledged.

Ignacio watches Gregor lead the boys away, maybe he lives down the street from Skid and Lila to keep an eye on them for the cult?

Either way, I'm surprised his appearance won't take place in the hospital as I previously predicted.

"I will be your guide. And I know your parents would be proud of you."

There's something undeniably sinister about this line, but how sinister hinges on whether Gregor is a cultist or ex-cultist. Whatever the case may be, he definitely knows more about or sees more in the boys than he lets on.

A great title card, and thought the blood everywhere is definitely concerning, I don't think there's anything to really say here, just wanted to get a screenshot of it.

And it would appear the character I've referred to as the cat lady will have the unenviable role of a hapless victim to the episode's villain. But honestly, I'm more surprised by her being at the hospital in the first place and why that never occurred to me before.

The actual progression of Patty's possession confirms to she's possessed by something other than Moloch. And what seals it for me is, fittingly, the eyes. The white of her eyes becomes a more vivid yellow, yet her pupil snot only don't form Moloch's typical spirals, but they're a more vivid shade of baby blue, a color that has never had any significance in the series before. Moloch will mostly be trapped in Dexter before eventually possessing Gregor, I will die on this hill.

AND THE FUGGIN' RELEASE DATE!!!

Alright, that's all, only a month now. We're so back!

[thevoidscreams]

Let’s do another one, shall we? This one might be a little more…freaky.

(Any Chaos Astartes)

*Your Astartes been more affectionate lately. Slowly persuading you into his “nest” where he finally has you right where he wants you. Stuffing you full of his clutch.

*You don’t even realize whats happened until you’re whimpering out in ecstasy. Too drugged up on his scent/pheromones.

*Oh, you’ll make a wonderful mother to his brood.

(Too freaky?)

Day 16

I am frothing. I love oviposition.

Pairing: Pumpkin chaos astartes oc x reader

Warnings: oviposition, sex pheromones/ chemically induced arousal, space marine husbandry with full sized astartes

Making the warnings bigger so yall dont miss it. But I'm gonna say it's all consensual I'm going to make more for this in the future I think

When I'd found him out in the wilderness I hadn't expected to bond with him so strongly. I couldn't even really tell what legion or chapter he'd been a part of.

Chaos, that was what the apothecaries told me and I was instructed to move forward with caution. I called him Pumpkin as a sign of affection. It was the nickname my mom used to call me. He liked it alot. Answering me eagerly when I called for my Pumpkin. Perhaps I should have tried to learn his real name first, now he won't tell me what it is. He only answers to Pumpkin.

But I liked him. He was a good housemate, keeping tidy and he was affectionate for someone I found in the woods.

He took up the old room I gave him, and it quickly became a cozy place as he scrounged old furniture from curbs.

I made him clean them thoroughly before he could bring them in. But it became a really sweet set up.

After he was done with all that he seemed to shift. It was nearly imperceptible at first. Just more touches here and there. Going out and bringing back fresh foods he'd foraged with him. 

Checking in on me, marking dates on the calendar with little stars. As if he was tracking something but he wouldn't tell me what. He spoke in broken English, but he was still learning the language, and I had learned just enough of his High Gothic to communicate.

I thought about going out to acquire another astartes. The forums said if you could have more then one they learned new languages quicker.

When I brought it up with him, he absolutely lost it. Yelling “No” in more than just two languages.

I was shocked but dropped it. But he was oddly distant after that, taking his dinner to his room to eat alone.

That night I went to the forums and tried to find out more.

[Hey all. My chaos astartes is strictly against me getting another astartes. Why,]

NewlyChaotic: 

“Hey all, 

I ‘adopted’ my chaos astartes about five months ago and everything has been great so far, but I had been wanting to open my home to another perhaps. But when I brought it up to Pumpkin (it's what he likes me to call him, I don't know why)

He lashed out badly and wouldn't talk to me for hours and went to bed.

I only brought it up after reading that astartes learn and operate better in groups generally.

Even chaos aligned.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I feel so lost and just want my Pumpkin hugs back. ;^;

I wanted and soon my thread had a response.

Salamander_Sheila🐉:

Hey @NewlyChaotic,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. It happens sometimes that astartes grow bonded to their baselines and just don't want to share. He might feel like you'll replace him if you bring another astartes into your home.

As for the chaos aspect, what legion is he?

NewlyChaotic:

I'm not sure, his armor looks like it was scrubbed clean of paint and he has no livery that I can discern. He's normally very sweet and I love him to pieces, I could never replace him.

Salamander_Sheila🐉:

I get that. I love my boys to bits and wouldn't ever want to hurt them.

Maybe he left his chapter/warband.

Also my friend @ShadowyMistress has a few chaos boys. She might know some things.

ShadowyMistress:

I have been summoned?

Yes I have many different chaos astartes. They're really sweet when they actually like you lol. :p

NewlyChaotic: 

So is his behavior normal?

ShadowyMistress:

Seems it. However you should look out if he starts to make “nests”.

Some mutated astartes begin to take on more animalistic traits.

He might try to breed you. Which, I mean if you're down for that then Godspeed.

Salamander_Sheila🐉:

It's pretty rare, but romantic connections can happen.

I would know.

I let that digest for a minute. Turning to look towards Pumpkin's door.

My heart thumped harder at the thought and I felt uncomfortably warm.

My love life had been pretty lackluster. Hadn't had a date in a hot minute. 

I shook my head, I'm sure it wasn't that.

NewlyChaotic:

Thanks for all the help guys. I have a lot to mentally chew on with his.

Salamander_Sheila🐉:

Talk to him, as best as you can.

If he's not proficient at English it's okay. Astartes are good at sensing intent and feelings. 

Be open with him and if you mean it, tell him you don't plan on replacing him with anyone else.

Good luck with Pumpkin, and you can shoot me or Shadow a dm if you need. We're usually around at this time.

NewlyChaotic:

I will. Night guys.

I logged off and shut the computer down.

The side table lamp was on and I knocked on the door softly. He wasn't an early sleeper so I knew he'd still be up.

There was a soft “Yes?” From the other side, I cracked the door open and called in.

“May I come in?...Please?”

I waited, my chest feeling tight for some reason.

“Yes.” 

I let out a breath I didn't realize I'd been holding and stepped in.

Pumpkin was at his desk. It looked like he'd been watching a nature documentary on the laptop I'd gotten him. I was happy he'd been enjoying it.

The words of the girls on the forum flashed in my mind. ‘Just talk to him..he'll understand the intent.’

“Hey, I wanted to apologize about earlier, I didn't mean to upset you.”

He looked at me with green gold eyes that seemed to understand what I was trying to convey.

Perhaps he understood more of my language than he could speak.

He turned to me fully and put out his hand. I took it and shivered at the contact. His hands were so warm.

“I don't want you to think I'm trying to replace you, not at all. I care about you Pumpkin. I just read that you astartes tend to do better in groups. And I was worried that being here with me wouldn't be enough to make you happy.”

I hadn't meant to spill that fear to him, but it was out now and I couldn't take it back.

He pulled me into his arms. Hugging me with so much understanding and affection. It felt amazing to be held like that.

“You are…enough. I am.. I am happy with you.”

He had to think through his words as he spoke and I returned the hug.

“I'm so glad. I just want you to be happy and healthy.”

He nodded and kissed the top of my head, it made me giggle.

I let him go and he did the same. But he raised his hands and gently touched my chin.

“I love you.” He chirped on High Gothic and I wasn't sure what he'd said but I didn't press.

“Well, I'm gonna get to bed. I have more work to get done in the morning.”

I hurried out, feeling a tad bit light headed. His touch had left me feeling hot for reasons I couldn't explain.

I was going to need a shower. Probably a cold one.

I watched her go, my hearts pounding. Too little, I noted. My pheromones hadn't built up enough. I opened up the journal on the miniature computer system my beloved had gotten me. 

I needed to record this interaction. It would be important to show our sons in the future. After they were here of course. 

It hurt to lie to her. I loved her, but I couldn't risk her finding out I knew everything she'd said. 

And if she brought an intruder into our home, our nest. My cover would be blown and our children's safety compromised.

I loved her, but she could be so silly.

Standing, I shutdown the computer and chuckled. No incense needed, no fancy oils. I liked these little machines. 

It was late and I needed to finish touching up the place where I would make our family, my new warband of sons, a reality.

It was such a shame that the old one lacked vision. That they refused to accept the gifts of our patrons.

Our numbers would have grown and we would have been unstoppable. Able to take anyone we pleased to grow our numbers.

I had had to do it, to cleanse them from existence. They turned me away, called me disgusting. A shame to kill so many brothers and cousins.

But what if they told others? 

I'd rid myself of their colors, their symbols, their outdated ideals. I was my own man now. I would have a warband that was loyal and not full of naysayers and old ruins.

The prince of pleasure and the changer of ways had given me such wonderful gifts.

I just had to have my little darling here with me in my nest. My pheromones were the strongest here. And she'd been too busy to notice that I moved my couches to block in the corner.

This would be the most comfortable place to fill her with my clutch.

I rearranged the pillows again, and pulled more blankets I'd gotten into the pit.

Perfect.

Her door was never locked. A good thing really, she was so beautiful in the moonlight. Dreaming soft dreams.

Were they of me? I know what few dreams I had were of her.

They had been since I'd first seen her in the park. Plotting how I would find my way to her. The whispered promises of my patrons in my ears.

But then, she found me first. It was fated. Truly it could not have been any other way. I had to be hers. She had to be mine. They told me so.

I liked the new shampoo she used, it smelled like desert flowers….like home.

“I love you.” I whispered again. My fingers brushing over her still damp hair. I would feel it more when I took her tomorrow. I would let her work while I made ready our love nest.

She would be mine. And her body would hold our sons. The prey I brought for her to feast on had been nutrient rich and her cycles had proven that. Tomorrow was the perfect time, peak fertility.

Oh so many clutches would her body carry for me.

I kissed her lips softly and slipped back to my room.

Soon darling. Soon.

The alarm I'd set woke me and I stretched rolling out of bed.

The smell of food wafted to me as I stepped out into the hall.

“Pumpkin?”

There was an answering grunt from the kitchen and my astartes came into view. Cooking up a balanced meal, as was his habit.

“Anything fun planned for today?” I asked, knowing he likely wouldn't reply.

“Well I have to finish up that last chapter and get it sent in. My editor's been on my butt all week over it.”

I felt his eyes fall on me. But he didn't reply verbally, just bringing me food without asking for anything in return.

I smiled and took the plates.

“I don't deserve you. You're too good to me.”

I was surprised when he wrapped me up in his arms, hugging me and nuzzling the top of my head.

He'd been doing that more and more often.

“Thank you, Pumpkin.” “You are welcome.” He sighed happily. “You remembered the response. That’s great.” I looked up and our noses touched briefly. Just to be a stinker I kissed the tip of his nose. He shivered and pulled away to look at me, he looked a bit confused and oh so adorable. I giggled, I couldn't help it, somehow the towering mass of muscle was just too cute. “Sorry, it was simply too good an opportunity to pass up.” 

He nodded and leaned down to kiss my nose in return. I giggled again and he went to his chair. I told him about my chapter and the climatic finale I had planned and how those plot points would lead to the next book. He listened with patience and nodded, even if I wasn’t sure he understood all the details. He took my empty plates and put them in the sink. “Have a good day.” He hugged me and I hugged him back. “I’ll do my best. Just for you.” His eyes lit up at that. She was becoming more affectionate in return. My patrons must be right. It had been too hard to pull myself away. But I needed time to continue to make the nest perfect with the final rituals. I retreated to my room, several bags of snacks ready for the trap I had set. At around 1:30 I finished up my last edit and sighed, saving my document again for the thousandth time and sent it off to my editor. I heard Pumpkin’s door open and went to see what he was doing. WHen he saw me his eyes lit up and he waved me over. “Hey you, guess who officially finished their book?” I gestured to myself. “It’s me!”

I stopped at his door and he took my hand. The lights in his room were dim and comfortable. “What’s all this about?” 

He’d rearranged his furniture making a blanket and pillow bowl. He’d set up his laptop with snacks and the show we’d been watching together. The room smelled strongly of him and something sweet. I was going to question what he’d used but suddenly I just didn’t mind. And hell, I could use a break and a treat for all that work I'd done. I let him take me to his blanket pit and climbed over the couch. “So what’s on the menu today?”

“You my beloved.”

I pressed play and pulled her down into my lap. She obliged and I had to once again fight to simply have her then and there. She fit perfectly against my body and I could feel myself getting hard. I needed to calm down. To let her find herself naturally ready to mate. I could smell it on her. Her fertility. The episode was good, but I kept losing my focus on it and looking down at her. After an hour she seemed a bit woozy. Like she had been after that party. She’d worried me then, but now I knew what clouded her mind and it wasn’t any drink. I smiled, it must have looked deranged for as much glee and anticipation I felt. It was impossible to focus now, I was so needy now that I had half a mind to just leave and take care of myself. But I didn’t want to. I wanted to be close to Pumpkin. I wanted to pet him and kiss him deeply. He was so handsome, nothing like what those forums said about the chaos chapters. “Pumpkin?” I breathed, my head felt light as I looked up at him, his green gold eyes boring into me. “Yes?” Mmm, his voice, gosh I could listen to it all day. I turned in his lap and did something I never thought I’d do. I kissed him, full on the mouth. He flinched with shock and my brain shorted out. The world spun and I was under him. The blanket pile smelled like him and I buried my face in it. Something nagged at the back of my mind but I ignored it in favor of space marine smell. Pumpkin moved away and I whined, making grabby hands for him to come back. My body was being shifted, although I wasn’t sure why and I felt him return the heat of his skin on mine making me moan. His hands took hold of my thighs and something pressed at my entrance. I was too giddy to look down, the instinctual part of my brain hollered again and I knew what, but I found that I didn’t care. She yielded to me so beautifully, her body was ready and I slipped in with a groan and she let out a silvery little cry under me. Her hands clawed at my chest, trying to pull me down closer to her. I let her, and took her chin in my fingers, holding her as I pressed her down into the blankets, kissing her hard. The mother of my sons. Too perfect, too warm and tight. I wondered if she would accept me forever. I would happily make her my little wife. She could write her books while she tended to our sons. I pulled out, rutting back into her. My cock was perfectly tailored to allow me to push the tip into her cervix without hurting her. Just one of the design choices that the changer had gifted me. It would allow me to cum in her and not waste any of it. That cum would prepare her body for what came next. My clutch, those seeds that would mature and grow till she was able to lay them. It would only be a few of them. BUt soon I’d be able to fill her. Her body would grow accustomed to them. But for now, I loved her body with my own. It was like heaven, his body moving against me, and in me. The warmth of his body over mine and his lips stealing kisses. I cried out again as he pressed in deeper, every thrust was pure delight. His cock brushing over every spot conceivable that might make me see stars. My nails racked over his skin, leaving angry red scratches behind, he moaned and it made me want him even more. It was like candy to my brain, a sugarly sweet addiction.

“Pumpkin.” I squealed as he wrapped his arms under my back and hugged me tight to him, leaving barely enough room to breath. His hips jack hammered into mind, making cohesive thoughts impossible. But what should matter to me? It was an otherworldly level of pleasure. No one had ever made me feel this good. The force of his thrusts and the pure bliss sent me over the edge, It felt like my body was twisting inside as my eyes rolled back and my back arched almost painfully into him. The noise that came from me didn’t sound like one a pleasure i’m sure, but my body burned with even more need, the need to be filled. Her nails cut into my thick hide, drawing droplets of blood and I felt even more in love with her. So strong for someone so small. I could feel her loosening and the tip of my cock slipped an inch into her womb. The perfect place for my clutch. I came into her. The thick ropes of my love conditioning her for the final stage. The prince promised me that it would make her body accept my clutch, giving her the feeling of being pregnant. So her body wouldn’t reject my sons. They moved down from their place of holding in my abdomen and I groaned deeply as I felt them pass from me and into her. I petted her hair as she gasped and writhed under me as the eggs stretched her. “There, there. Soon my love. You will bring forth our sons.” I soothed her kissing her cheeks and temples while three lemon sized eggs were deposited into her. I stayed inside her till she fell asleep in my arms. A soft smile gracing her lips. “My love, you cannot imagine the joy you have brought to my life. And the joys you have yet to bring.” I rolled onto my side making her comfortable as she pressed into me. I placed a blanket over her. I had a journal entry to update. My Dearest sons, You were conceived today. And your mother was more perfect than I could have ever dreamed.

[bonesandthebees]

Guess who had a free afternoon and got some reading done, it’s-a me, the spruce tree!

Anyway, I read the trail fic and I love it, but also I have questions.

See all the chapters are interesting and I’m sure we will get a Ranboo testimony and the neighbour and that will bring some really ugly shit to light, but right now I want to focus on Niki’s chapter.

Sweet poor Niki and her blame game. Because the interesting thing is, we know Quackity knew Wilbur from the first chapter. And we know he knows Tommy because he calls him by the nickname and drops everything to be his lawyer.

I’m just not sure Niki knows. Not sure Niki and Quackity knew each other. They don’t interact that way. Tbf, in real life I’m not sure Quackity would be allowed to be Tommy’s lawyer based on personal connection. But Niki talks about Quackity’s final months and never mentions that he was trying to reach him too.

It’s mainly interesting because I’m wondering how close Wilbur, Q and Tommy were. Was he there in the final months? Did he try to reach him too? Run into the same road block? They are talking about the same friend they lost. I’m sure they’ve had the same emotions. Niki is mostly upset for Tommy not letting her in when she was at the door (though really she is upset at herself for leaving/not insisting entering anyway). She’s upset at herself for not doing more and projecting that onto Tommy because he’s the person who stopped her. Quackity might know more, or he might know less. He might have more emotional distance or just be slightly more mentally stable.

Anyway, these are just my ramblings. I don’t think I’ll have reading time tomorrow or Friday (more like metal energy) so I’ll catch up on Saturday. But I’ve really been loving these. It’s a fun, light read (I say about a fic discussing murder and suicide.)

Bye, Bee! Hope you have a nice day!

-🌲

SPRUCEEEEE!!!

ok some clarification about quackity and wilbur's relationship in this. there was actually a line in the original draft that quackity and wilbur specifically knew each other in college, but I didn't know if that broke the timeline I later set up and if wilbur even went to college in this au so I just took the line out because I didn't want to think about it too hard. but yeah I should've clarified I wrote this with the idea that quackity and wilbur used to be friends but contact gradually faded out as they both got busy with other things. so quackity wasn't really in contact with wilbur at all during his final year and had no idea there was anything wrong. he was still invited to the funeral because he was an old friend, but he was closer with wilbur and tommy both when tommy was like. 13ish. so a while ago. sorry I should've probably thrown in a replacement line to clarify that

also while niki knows that quackity was an old friend of wilbur's, she never met him and doesn't know how close they were or anything like that. plus testifying on the stand is not really the time to act familiar with the guy questioning you so that's also why the two of them didn't act like they knew each other at all. they mainly just knew of each other but didn't have a direct connection. so they have that thread of tension running between them as well of not really being strangers but only knowing each other through their dead mutual friend, and now actually coming face to face at said dead friend's little brother's murder trial

(also to my understanding yeah your lawyer for your defense can be a friend. like, I think that's not all that uncommon for people's lawyers to be someone they already know/someone they've had a long time connection with, whether that be through a professional or personal capacity. I think there would only possibly be issues if quackity had some connection with dream but he didn't. I could be wrong but yeah)

but yeah I hope that helps clear things up!! hope things are going well for you <33

[liminalmemories21]

Fuck It Friday

tagged by @jesuisici33.

Apparently I'm just using this tag as a way to post outtakes.

This is a deleted/rewritten from Knave 2 that eventually became "Then - 7 Months Ago (August)". The two bear almost no resemblance to each other, but it was the same idea of TK's past coming back to haunt him. Also, I'm still kind of playing around with the idea of what exactly Carlos's colleagues think of him, and more specifically him and TK.

“Am I a problem for you?”  TK asks suddenly.

And it feels like such a non sequitur that he’s lost.  “What?”

“At the station, am I a problem for you?”

“What did this guy say to you?”

TK shrugs, “Nothing that wasn’t true, and that’s fine when it’s me.  My sins, my penance.”

“How very Catholic of you,” Carlos says dryly, on autopilot, trying to find the plot thread to this conversation.

TK smiles briefly, but the smile drops away again almost instantly.  "The guy who taught me how to grift, he told me once that you have to get out of the game as soon as you have something you aren’t willing to lose."

And he’s not following, and feels stupid.  TK gives him an unhappy look.  “I thought I’d done it right.  I got clean.  I got out.  But it’s always going to follow me around, I just don’t want it to follow you around too.”

He reaches out, and then stops just shy of touching TK, not sure if he’s welcome.  “I think I’m going to need an actual verb at some point.”

“I’ve heard people talking, at the station, when I drop something off, or if I meet you there.”

“Who?” he asks sharply.  “Garvey?  Because Garvey’s a dick to everyone who isn’t a middle aged white guy.”

TK frowns, “No, not Garvey, although that kind of proves my point.”

“TK seriously, can you start at the beginning and just keep going until the end so I can figure out what the hell is going on?”

TK looks up, startled.  “Shit.  I’ve never actually seen you lose your patience.”  He glances at his watch.  “That took what, eight months?  That has to be a record for me.”

He gives in to exasperation and worry and tugs TK over to the couch and pulls him down.  “TK.”

TK’s smile is brief and humorless.  “Massey - the guy on the our Board - he said he’d been talking about the program over dinner, mentioned my name.  Next day his brother-in-law stopped by his office with a bunch of stories about me - true stories as it happens, although I’m not sure he cared a lot about asking that question.  He said he’d brought it up with Tanya who was,” he makes air quotes, “‘woefully naive’, so it was his responsibility as a Board member to keep an eye on me.”  He waves a hand, “which, whatever, as long as he doesn’t try and get me fired I don’t actually care.”

“But?”

TK blows out a breath, “But then he mentioned you.  Said he’d heard that we were involved.  Said that was the kind of thing that didn’t reflect well on young detective,” he scowls, “dude seriously talked like he was an 80 year old out of Dickens’ novel.”  He flicks a glance at Carlos.  “He said, it was the kind of thing that made people think twice about coming for backup.”

Carlos takes a steadying breath.  “Okay, sweetheart, this is what’s been tying you up in knots?”  TK nods, frowning.  “I’m gay, Tejano, and a legacy hire.  People thought twice about coming for backup a long time before I started dating you.”

TK flashes him a wry smile.  “You’re saying I should get over myself?”

He snorts, “I’m saying that I know who to trust and who not to, and none of that is a calculus that’s changed in the last eight months.  And, even if it had, I still wouldn’t give you up for it.”

“I can’t be the reason you get hurt,” TK says seriously.

“Off the top of my head I can think of five people at the station you might have overheard saying shitty things about me.  They’ve been saying them since I got there.  I worked hard for my job, and I earned it whatever anyone else might think.  And, I’m not giving it up because someone who's living in a fantasy of the 1950s doesn't want me there, and I'm sure as hell not giving you up for them."

“How do you go to work every day if you think that?”

He looks at TK with a straight face, “Well it helps that I’m 99.9% sure that I’m having much better sex than they are.”

TK gapes at him for a moment, and then shoves him, hard and he topples back into the sofa cushions laughing.  “This is your idea of being comforting?”

He straightens up, and reaches for TK’s hand with less hesitation this time.  “I think I can’t change anyone’s opinion by willing it, all I can do is live up to my own expectations for myself and hope that they can respect that.  Giving up someone I love, because someone tells me to, I couldn’t respect myself if I did that, so how can I ask someone else to respect me?”

TK looks at him seriously.  “I think you’re giving other people too much credit, but it’s working in my favor so I’m not gonna argue too hard.”

tagging anyone who has outtakes they want to share, because like anyone who grew up with DVD blooper reels, I love me an extra.

[wishlikes]

holy shit. looks at you with my massive autistic eyes. what’s bad future time traveler ritsu PLEASE share with the class. and if you don’t want to share with the class that is ok but also please if you are so inclined then at least share with the me

Well. You see.

It all started when I was running low on time to finish Whumptober prompts and... well, I had just come from the rottmnt fandom. I had 'character time travels from a bad future' on the mind. So I drew this and thought 'surely no more will come of this'.

And yet the concept stayed in my mind. I drew this sketch page several months later. Someone's tag on it inspired me to actually write the story, as explained here (along with more info, though I'm going to change some things from what's written here).

There's also these two drawings that take place in the bad future, although I didn't draw Ritsu old enough in the second one, because I hadn't figured out the timeline yet when I drew it. (warnings for blood and injury on both of them)

I've figured out the timeline of the bad future now, though. And I am cursed with the knowledge that the very little I'd already written needs to be rewritten to suit it. This writing/rewriting will not be happening until I am done with my current wip (which is almost done... but might need a sequel because i am cursed).

So I myself know very little about what's going to happen in the bad future time travel fic that i had better fucking write because I desperately need to know what happens.

Some Key Events of the Bad Future:

Sep 2015 - [Redacted] is murdered

Nov 2018 - First anti-esper laws drop

Jan 2020 - Shou 'goes missing', his father is 'convinced' to identify several espers- including the one he couldn't beat

Feb 2020 - Shou escapes custody in an incident his father doesn't survive, Shou is labeled a terrorist, Mob is arrested, Shou and Ritsu go into hiding together

Dec 2021 - Shou is killed (among others), Ritsu fakes his own death

Jun 2023 - [Redacted] informs Mob of Ritsu's 'death'. As you can imagine, this is a bit like setting off a bomb. A bomb that can self-heal and keep exploding until the rage burns out, until only despair remains, until there is no longer even the barest sub-conscious thread left of self-preservation. And so the wounds stop healing, and power dies down, and only then can Ritsu come close enough to help, to show that he's still alive. But it's too late, too late. This place, this time is not safe for Ritsu; they would kill him. And Shigeo has not seen him in over three years and he looks so awful now, and Shigeo cannot protect him. He has to send him away, away to somewhere safe. And then Ritsu is gone, safe. And there is nothing left for him here.

Jun 2011 - Future!Ritsu arrives

So. Ah. I got a bit carried away there. I wouldn't normally include that much, but Future Ritsu is such an emotionally devastated wreck of a man that I can't bear to write from his pov, so i don't know how much of all that ^ is gonna make it into the fic anyway.

What I do know is that Ritsu thinks he's been sent to the past specifically to Fix Everything. And that's the only thing keeping him from just lying down and not getting up again. The knowledge that his brother only wanted to save him would probably make him worse actually.

[ayyponine]

might fuck around and do yotp25 btw. local woman simply can not stop writing her stupid lil stories of blorbos having hard conversations and falling in looove

in a shocking turn of events though after a few years doin 3 bang events, 3 holiday exchanges, 2 other types of collaboration and of course a whole lot of self indulgent shit just fr meee all totalling *checks notes* over 275k dedicated to one ship. at last i am moving on to smth new. or rather. an old comfort ship. and possibly also a ship i vaguely am aware of but have never written about but now figured hey. yknow what i might have some things to say. that is right i might do the challenge simultaneously fr two different fandoms. twotp event if you will.

soo anyway ship 1 i literally wrote ONE >2k gen fic fr way back in 2014 but it’s a pairing i think of fondly and still carry within me low key a little. also au’s/reincarnation was/is a trend in that fandom which allows perfectly fr me to play around w the diff prompts while making a single cohesive story in monthly bite sized bits which had me like oooo. mayhaps i Would like to dive back in fr a while and play around w them thank you very much..

ship 2 again is not smth i actively ship but! i have Thoughts on the characters and their dynamic i might wish to Share with the rest of the class. again rather than separate drabbles i wanna make it all chapters of one story hoyyeverr since i need to obey the order of the monthly prompts these are not chronological (though still evenly distributed across past present future aka pre during and post canon events as instalments of again, one single narrative thread). tryin to figure out how i can fuck around w both the actual written text and its general structure to make clear the chronological order while making it a good solid read fr the monthly updates aka the order in which every new piece of the puzzle will be published. all im gonna say abt this ship is i loved that theres prompts fr 12 months w possibility of a bonus 13 to give a multifaceted view canon can not touch on. otherwise do not even fucking look at me and my intentions

absolutely devastated i might need to drop hanahaki fr both bc problematic or no i am a sucker fr that shit. i LICHERALLYYY just did a regency hanahaki au fr a ship mere months ago and yet here i am again. can NOT be sated yet unfortunately both stories i have in mind fr this are indeed, entirely set in this world which would not allow fr that type of setup even a lil bit rip

absolutely delighted january starts w a first kiss, feb has bed sharing/this made me think of u type tenderness and november enables a touch starved/are you sure combo of absolutely devastating consent after ages of pining from both the characters and readers. in march i am absolutely canonically murdering some guys though do not get me wrong. the hurt and comfort is what i live for baybeeeee

[ellieinbg]

Making a folk skirt for my cold legs

Back in the before times—which I guess for most people means before COVID-19, but for me means before chronic illness smashed my world to bits—I used to do a lot of couture-style sewing. I have sewen entire historical ensembles. I sewed my own wedding dress. I thread traced and pad stitched and flat-lined. I was in love with the idea of fashion and wanted to engage with it on a sophisticated level. The problem was I didn't like anything I made.

Not only do I have a hard-to-fit body, but I have an electrolyte disorder that fucks up my hormones and makes my body size fluctuate like wild. When I could get things to fit well, they inevitably didn't fit well a month later. And the things I made were either too costumey for me to wear or too boring for me to enjoy. The sheer amount of money, and effort it took to create a garment I didn't like or could not wear destroyed my interest in sewing. I took a break for many years, though as sick as I was I could not have sewn even if I had wanted to. In the past few years, I have had the opportunity to live in Bulgaria for a few months at a time, here and there, slowly soaking up the culture. There I discovered my passion for Slavic folk attire. I have had the opportunity to view some amazing pieces up close at museums and festivals and to see countless up-close photos on Bulgarian buy/sell websites. Something that slowly wormed its way into my brain as I spent time appreciating these garments is how wonderfully flawed they are. I don't mean that they are not skillfully created. They, of course, vary from roughly made amateur attempts to some of the most amazing textile work I have ever seen. What they lack is the rigid rules of couture. The stuffy conventions that define high fashion are conspicuously and freeingly missing from these garments. They are not fitted but instead tied and belted into shape. Trimmings can be added ad-hoc with little coordination as old ones are replaced or new fancier ones can be obtained. Tunics, vests, skirts, and aprons are mostly stand-alone things and not part of a coordinated ensemble. Each item is beautiful and meaningful but modular. And most of all they tend to be extremely size adjustable. Not custom fit for one single body, but designed for any body that garment might be handed down to. Cue this winter, when I was once again looking with dread at the pants in my closet, knowing the things that fit were not warm enough for winter and dreading another round of buying things. There is a growing online trend for sewing historic-inspired adjustable clothing and I knew what I needed was an adjustable over skirt for going out. It needed to be long, warm, and easy to throw on over whatever I was wearing in the house. I wanted something that visually paid homage to the Slavic folk wear I love but their tie-on construction method wasn't going to work. Traditionally these skits had a long slit from the waistband down and tied shut. The ties let the skirt adjust to your size but the front would gap and was not very modest. This is why many historic European costumes include an apron. When wearing skirts of this type the apron covered this slit and provided complete modestly. Also, you have to either step into or drop these skirts over your head which wasn't what I wanted. While pondering how I wanted to make this I stumbled upon a video from "Sewing Therapy" about reversible hanbok skirt construction. The Hanbok is a traditional garment in Korea and like much traditional clothing, a very simple design made mostly of rectangles. As I understand it, and my understanding is poor, the skirt variant is a relatively modern creation. It has a waistband, two ties, and a large pleated panel. Importantly for me, the hanbok is made on the straight grain and not gored, or cut on the circle, just like Slavic folk skirts. They are very size adjustable and can be layered over any under clothes easily making them the perfect outer layer for winter.

I do not in any way claim that what I made in the end is a traditional hanbok. Pleated skirts with a waistband are a pretty pan-cultural idea and are frequently used in the construction of traditional European skirts as well, but the idea of making a pleated panel into a wrap skirt is something I first saw with this hanbok video and I wanted to make a point to give credit to Sara its creator. I hit up my local thrift store for cotton sheets for this experiment and lucked out on this burgundy and cream pair. The burgundy side I hit up with black fabric spray paint and whip-stitched a burgundy ribbon from my stash. For the cream side, I dip-dyed it with procion dyes. I added a simple pocket bag on one side and then stamped it with my possum skull block from my trash coat project. I made a point just to get this made and not to care about seams matching or thread color. I just wanted to have fun sewing again. And ya know what? It is imperfect and weird and works amazing to keep my legs warm and I LOVE IT. I wear this skirt constantly. I love it so much I have started on my second version, this time with some vintage 90s dino sheets.

[rigil-kentauris]

9 people you’d like to get to know better

tagged by @valerianvault

Three Ships: JUST THREE???

i am ALSO on that ffxiv juice and as yall MAY have guessed from all my aymericposting its wol/aymeric.

id be here all night if i did ffxiv ships so moving on.

hm.

hm.

ffxiv has really taken oven my brain space huh? tbqh the other games im playing rn arent big shipping arenas for me. what do you ship in frostpunk? coal x generator fics i suppose. if youve got time to fuck youve got time to truck in some more steel from the steel pile. extended shifts for everyone.

this is where i would have put my feh ships if feh wasnt dead to me

well i could put bylad/claude three houses here. power couple of the century. going to get an emulator/mod at some point to restore justice in s supports. i havent got anything against bylass ships but usually the way people write her drives me fucking INSANE.

hm what for three. ugh. ugh. ugh i said no more ffxiv. but i would be lying if - and would LOVE to lie about it though - i would be lying if i tried to act like cidnero hasnt consumed at minimum 15% of my waking thoughts in recent months. its like a fucking perplexus sphere. a very Puzzle. like the rct2(?) roller coaster auto complete function. i WILL figure it out. whatever It is. but everytime i solve a piece another puzzle pops up. gonna reduce this fucking fraction youll see. youll all see.

First Ever Ship: lol. so way back when, my sister was trying to tell me her Lame Older Sister about this cool new thing called shipping. which i was NOT getting at all. and she, i would imagine because of the relative mainstream awareness at the time and the largely practical fact that i knew what marvel movies were, decided to offer the example of 'its like What If iron man and captain america were together'

which i thought was patently silly. i dont remember why now. i think my main objection was that it did not happen, and why would people spend so much time thinking about things that did not happen.

well anyway. tale old as time i thought it was very funny to ironically talk about it. and then it was not ironic anymore. so it goes.

Last Song: well according to my phone music app it was of the night by bastille.

Last Movie: hm what WAS the last movie i watched? i havent watched a movie in a minute. well we're going to be rewatching the gran turismo movie probably tonight. i liked it quite a bit in the theater (went to an empty matinée).

Currently Reading: UGH still slogging through Utopia. im at a part where it seems tommy has lost the thread, so, its difficult. and then my friend wrote a book! and im very excited to read the new draft

Currently Watching: SCAVENGERS REIGN!!!! a very beautiful and thought provoking show about a group of people who get stranded on an alien planet and how they interact with that biosphere and themselves. the animation is beautiful and colorful. it is on hbo max or whereever you receive hbo products. the last episodes drop today idk if i can handle it

Currently Consuming: nothing because i just woke up. im going to haul myself out of bed for some frosted shredded miniature wheats soon i hope

Currently Craving: anything but frosted shredded miniature wheats. bacon cheese egg wrap. chocolate chip brioch bun. pasta. hm i might be hungry. lets say Food

Tagging: @czigonas @plaidypus @lieutenantk thanks for joing me on my breadmaking saga yesterday.

[lawlznet]

State of the Meme 2023

Content Warnings: Depression, Death, SH, Hatred, a lot of self deprecation What follows is an explanation and also rant about why I haven’t been online for this entire month. If you’d just like to skip down to what I’m planning to do in 2024, scroll all the way down to where the line break is.

---

Hey everyone, Lawler here. This is the “State of the Meme” for 2023 and for the purposes of this post, I will be speaking out of character; as myself, not the vtuber.

This has not been a good year for me and it is with bated breath that I look forward to the next one. As some of you may be aware, my father fell ill in late September, suffering cardiac arrest and other diagnoses besides. His chances of survival, much less recovery, were slim given his age and the extent of his complications, but in a series of miracles that I hope to not take for granted for the remainder of his, and my, natural life, he recovered enough to be transferred to a nursing home, and then back to our home. Few of his complications remain and we optimistically foresee him returning to his “pre-accident” state sometime halfway next year. In the days since he returned, around the week of my birthday in early December, he has already recovered enough to move around the house on his own- to feed himself (via a tube connected to his stomach), to prepare his own medications, and to slowly retake ownership of household duties that had fallen to me in the months passed- paperwork and such. Prior to this blog post, it was nearly impossible for me to find time away from assisting him; even our previously late evening streams or early morning and afternoon were not a sure bet, and in fact I had to cancel my participation in a stream on my birthday for this reason.

It is with cautious optimism that things may stabilize enough in my household, to where I could possibly return to vtubing with the regularity I afforded before.

But before that can happen, I have a number of things to talk about first.

I feel like I’ve walked with death all the course of my life, and that does not just include attending one too many funerals for family members, both young and old, or that of friends and acquaintances whom either had theirs taken, or had taken their own. I generally treat the concept as the great unifier of all people, regardless of race, creed, sexuality, or any other descriptor we may use to divide ourselves from one another. It is the one great certainty and on some level, I like to think that I give the concept more weight than most.

Then I find myself spending hours doomscrolling, consuming thread after thread of outrage over strangers I had never met, and only learned hours before. A-drop-in-a-bucket hot celebrity name does something immensely stupid, either intentionally or unintentionally, and I join the lamentation that someone with so much apparent wealth and status can afford to be so flippant. Sometimes I’ll even repost OP or bits and pieces of the thread, telling myself that these individual statements, crammed into 280 or 300 characters, are somehow so poignant so as to redeem the discussion; and that by not mentioning their names, I am somehow not adding to the problem.

The problem of using my platform to further magnify people who we spend a whole lot of words discussing as “evil...” and for what?

Is it fun? Do I feel better about myself? Does anyone, besides the subject, benefit from my “contribution?”

No.

I was depressed before I burned those hours away. My employment is shaky and in a side universe I might have been laid off. I rarely have time for myself anymore that isn’t in the wee hours before getting out of bed or the minutes before falling asleep from exhaustion. And I chose to spend it on reading about how someone I claim I don’t care about did something “horrible,” or at least mildly uncomfortable- about how a country somewhere is doing bad things to people they claim are bad, or “as bad,” or, nowadays, without any sort of justification- and when I’m not doom-consuming, I complain to myself that I don’t have enough time for anything.

That I hate everything.

And well,

I’m not wrong.

But I’ve had this conversation before. I’ve complained about it before, online and on social media and in private discords, and I’ve even, in my continuing hypocrisy, chided others about it. I might try to make myself feel better by telling myself, “oh, well you see...”

“Social media is a ‘necessary part of my job.’”

“You *must* expose yourself to constant, attention grabbing toxicity, and participate in its accumulation- its dissemination, its detached, virtue signaling, people pleasing, mock-outrage generating content creation.”

As opposed... to someone who just, reads reddit, screengrabs accounts with sub two digit readership with obnoxiously bad takes, watches political discourse tiktoks and uncited youtube video essays; yes, you see, surely these people and their misery are entirely *self* inflicted, as opposed to myself, who is “mandatorily” victimized, right?

It’s bullshit.

I hate it.

And so it follows that I must *also* hate myself.

Because I participated in it.

So,

I’m going to try to stop.

Prior to this I never publicized, but internally created some rules for how I interact with this “content” and the people who produce it. Most, I believe, are not intentionally malicious. We are just the successful products of an inherently evil industry; living proof that everything is working exactly as intended.

The only way out is to break the cycle, and in order to do so... I almost always avoid, and if necessary mute, or block, anyone who:

1) Makes generalizing, sweeping statements of an entire group of people,

2) Issues ultimatums on their public facing social media accounts,

3) Anyone who regularly disparages any group of people, especially people whom they are supposed to be a part of- e.g. anyone who regularly harps about “how terrible the vtuber community is,” without the slightest bit of introspection.

For the sake of my own mental stability and to gradually wind down my own involvement in making the internet a worse place, I have decided that beginning in 2024, I will:

1) Reduce or completely eliminate reposting, replying to, or commenting on, any political or negative thread of which I am not directly or indirectly involved, or are not a subject matter expert or hobbyist.

2) Remove all feeds, block or ignore all search terms, and avoid discussing or entertaining any of the above subjects in any capacity outside of private conversations.

3) If necessary, mute, unfollow, or block accounts which only seem to exist to further spread the above content.

As some of you know, I am a cyberpunk influencer and consider myself a “cyberpunk” outside of my online personas. I’ve also recently dipped my toes into the world of Linux and am eager to dive into the worlds of cybsec and opsec beyond browser addons and lists of FOSS programs. I’ve been into this subculture for the majority of my life and I don’t see that changing anytime soon; nor will I censor content that I deem directly or inherently related.

There’s a sheer cliff of difference between merely complaining about celebrities and a toxic online culture and explaining not just how, but *why* it is in your best interest to avoid or defeat these things. Within weeks of a certain major social media website’s fall from grace, a number of user created addons were developed to make said website’s use tolerable (OldTwitter by Dimden as an example); Youtube’s attempts at forcing adblock users to turn off their extensions ironically vastly improved these extensions (uBlockOrigin), and both of these addons, in addition to their “obvious” case use, have further ramifications for the end user than simply complaining about Former Billionaire 9000 and The Evil Company.

For one thing, it’ll save you money in the form of not clicking on malicious advertisements or shelling out a monthly subscription for something you could have gotten for free. But I digress.

These changes are a long time coming, and I apologize to the people whom I long promised I would “avoid” these things... only to return to them when it was convenient, or when I told myself that “this is a special exception,” or when I didn’t care, when I should have. You know who you are.

I’ll most likely fuck up again and find myself having this conversation with myself or in the illusory safety of a chatroom.

But you see... I’m in my mid thirties. And while its true that I have these conversations with myself and others, all the time, and I regularly beat myself up and hate myself for my participating in the “culture,” the truth is... every day, I am more and more grimly reminded, of what little time I have to do things I actually want with my life.

Of how my perception of time seems to be speeding up. Of how little potential time I fear I might have. I don’t just mean the possibility of the Four Horsemen riding and causing such an orgy of misery that will make the last ten years look like Christian cis heteronormative missionary with clothes on and the lights off. I mean the fact that it is atypical for my household to travel to family gatherings in individual vehicles, and that on that evening in September, it was only through sheer chance that we decided to attend my niece’s birthday party individually- that my mother had to be hospitalized for an illness herself, and that I, for reasons I don’t even remember, chose to drive on my own. If this had been any other evening, my father may have had a heart attack while we were all together in the family SUV. On a highway.

And as spooky as that scenario is, every time I get on the road, or even walk down my own street, I think about the possibility of dying. Maybe someone’s in a hurry and wasn’t paying attention while merging onto my lane. Maybe someone’s drunk. Maybe someone needed a twenty and thought they’d rob this weirdo walking around the streets at night and weren’t expecting a fight. Even when you set aside all the political, worldly garbage that trad-media constantly shits down the throat of an unwilling (and sometimes masochistic) boomer populace, you aren’t guaranteed whatever illusion of stability and peace you have right here and now. It could change as easily as the wind blows. And I think I am so tired... of burning so much of my life on shit that has done little for me except to make me upset, when I could have so much, much more to be upset about in the next few minutes.

I walk with death every minute of my life.

If possible, I’d like my last memory to be doing something I actually give a crap about. Or talking with, or about someone that I admire or care about. I don’t think I ever thought those experiences were a waste of time.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Thank you for reading this far. And now, for changes that actually apply to my “real” content moving forward... (as in, actually applies to you because last I checked, I’m a vtuber, not a vtweeter or a vskeeter or whatever the shit they call it these days...) I’ve worked in corporate for too long. Even if it’s a long shot or doesn’t make that much money, I really feel like a career in the entertainment and art-space is a better occupation to strive for than pushing paper in the universally and permanently depressing healthcare industry.

I’ll keep streaming video games and fighting games will always be part of that routine, but for reasons I don’t understand, I’ve neglected first person shooters. That changes now. (I hope the kind of Doom y’all like are the video game kinds.)

I am in the process of dipping my toes into youtube short form videos and will be uploading some cringey garbage to just about everywhere except Twitter, because of changes to their terms of service which potentially gives total ownership of my IP to the website. Fuck that.

I miss virtual reality.

Those vroid comics take a ridiculously long time to make but god do I enjoy doing it.

I am greatly reducing my usage of Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon, aside from announcement posts. Twitter is nearly unusable even with a subscription and unlike Bluesky and Mastodon (which... are basically the same thing) are bereft of the tools necessary for curating my experience and Making Me Less Wanting To Kill My Self. So yeah, Fuck Twitter. But what else is new.

I don’t know what I was thinking when I designed this blog the way I did and by the time you read this, I’ve probably reset it to be a lot easier to read on the eyes, at the cost of not looking as “cool.” I’m going to be making fiction writing a priority again. I have some vtuber tabletop campaigns to write up and then to run.

If I don’t successfully finish in time for Christmas and New Year’s, I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I don’t have a timeline of when I’ll be able to stream consistently again. Thank you for your patience with me.

Love,

Lawler Hix

[scary-movies-on-netflix]

LONGLEGS (2024)

REMINDER: MY REVIEWS CONTAIN SPOILERS.  Also a spoiler, this was disappointing.  Almost meh. 

Basically, “Longlegs” is just some dude named Cobble, played ostentatiously by Nicholas Cage (caked in pale makeup, with numerous facial prosthetics).  Cobble worships Satan, and to serve Satan he makes dolls of little girls.  He has them delivered to the girls near their birthdays (which always take place on the 14th day of the month).  The Satan doll compels the father to kill the rest of the family and then to commit suicide.  Longlegs leaves behind notes in a type of cipher.  That’s it. 

The movie is placed in 1995 (I think).  “Lee Harker” is a new “SPECIAL AGENT” for the FBI, much like FBI trainee Clarice Starling in “The Silence of the Lambs” (1991).  Stuff happens, and Lee is tested for psychic abilities, so maybe she has some special skills, but after a few scenes we’ll drop that thread so it barely matters.  Anywho, her FBI boss, Carter, places her on the Longlegs case.  She goes home, and Longlegs is there!  He places a note on her desk, basically a key to his cipher, and she is then able to decipher his remaining notes.  This leads to a farmhouse where they find a doll, and also to the survivor of an earlier attack, who is Kiernan Shipka!  (We last saw her in "The Blackcoat's Daughter" (2015).)

Eventually, Carter digs into Lee’s past, and he informs her that on her ninth birthday her mother called in a police report about an intruder, who might have been Longlegs!  Lee visits her mother, who denies knowing anything but also makes some ominous statements.  Lee looks through some old Polaroids in her room, and there is Longlegs!  In a picture!  With the picture, Longlegs is captured really quickly, like the next day, it seems.  Under interrogation, he talks about knowing Lee.  Carter is satisfied that the crime is solved (even if he’s not sure how Longlegs managed to convince the dads to kill their families), but Lee is convinced that he must have had an accomplice.  She goes to talk to Nicholas Cage, I mean, Longlegs, and we have to suffer through an interminable scene of gross overacting.  He finally says something about Lee’s mother and then proceeds to bash his head into the table, killing himself.

Lee and another FBI  agent go to collect Lee’s mom, who is named Ruth.  Lee enters the home, but Ruth is not there!  Ruth is outside, with a shotgun!  She blasts the other FBI agent.  Lee chases her to a yard, where Ruth is pointing the shotgun at a doll of young Lee.  She shoots the doll, a black cloud floats away from Lee’s head, and Mom narrates how Longlegs came to their house for Lee’s ninth birthday.  In exchange for Lee’s safety, Ruth agreed to help Longlegs by dressing up as a nun to deliver the Satan dolls to various houses.  She was the accomplice!  All Ruth had to do was stay and watch and then take the dolls away when everyone was dead.

Lee wakes up from her memory.  She gets a weird phone call, that she is missing the birthday party of Carter’s daughter (whom she met earlier in the movie).  Lee rushes to Carter’s house, but Ruth is already there, with a doll of the little girl!  Carter is acting weird.  He takes his wife into the kitchen and kills her.  Lee does absolutely nothing to stop him. He’s coming back out to kill his daughter, but Lee finally shoots him.  Then Ruth’s mother is going to kill the girl, because she is now a Satanist, but Lee shoots her too.  Lee tries to shoot the doll, but she is out of bullets.  She says something about leaving and that’s the end.

So, if you follow this genre (horror) you’ve no doubt seen the multiple trailers, which provided scant details about the story but teased us with plenty of cool, intriguing images.  Our problem is that the movie barely filled in the rest of the plot!  The movie has pretensions, perhaps, to be the next “The Silence of Lambs,” but it fails on so many levels.  It lacks any verisimilitude as a “horror crime procedural,” like "Seven" (1995) or any of the "True Detective" seasons.  The acting is dull and lifeless.  Yes, I understand the Lee is supposed to be withdrawn and introverted, but even so, she’s just a blank cutout of a character.  As for Nicholas Cage, I have a running hypothesis that he ruins movies he’s in, and “Longlegs” does nothing to disprove my hypothesis.  (See, "Color Out of Space" (2019).) He speaks in a sing-song voice, he bellows and yells, he lowers his voice to sound menacing.  There are a few goods lines.  He talks about “Mr. Downstairs,” (who sounded intriguing, but was nothing in the end!*).  He says, “Hail, Satan!” like the cultists from “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968).  From a certain point of view, this is a bravura performance, but I still hate it! There are certainly moments of creepiness, but as a movie serial killer, he's hard to take seriously.

Overall, this was ok.  I won’t say it’s meh, as there are plenty of successful images and instances of genuine unease.  The plot picks up and drops threads too easily, nothing is filled out to satisfaction.  There’s no central set piece.  Nothing will linger in the memory for long, which is the worst fate for a movie.

*Except, he's the Devil!

[irresistiibles]

beneath the cut is a far too long event starter/plot call! feel free to like this and i will come bother you on discord probably tomorrow. this is also a starter call, though i definitely tend to prefer plotting first you're welcome to just hop in and request things with that being said i'm working on clearing out a lot of my older threads. if you request two people we previously had a thread for i will probably drop the old one unless it is extremely plot heavy, and in general i am going to use the event as a way to clear out my older things that have been reaching an end.

amber: not too worried, but could definitely get it in her head that she should go out and play detective to help people and try to drag others into the nonsense as well

asami sato: she pays for a good security system and knows several different ways to defend herself. she's a little on edge just because it's yet another thing and she's tired, but is mostly feeling alright all things considered.

ciel phantomhive: also pays for good security and isn't letting himself stress out too much, or at least that's how he's coming off. will be pretty dismissive towards anyone that brings it up but potentially go looking for answers on his own.

starters (1/?): lizzie midford

columbina: she's amused more than anything i'm afraid. really, if you're going to kill someone she thinks you should do it with a bit more tact or care, but she's got morbid interests and could definitely be found looking for, or even tampering with evidence, more for amusement rather than answers though.

emily daivs: very unhappy and a little harsly paranoid about it. she's already worked way too hard to survive, she is not letting just some nobody in washington take her out. with that said she's going to be pretty careful around jsut about anyone. if she doesn't know you she doesn't trust you and she wants you at least five feet away from her at all times.

esther mckinnon: tired of these things happening, but not making too many changes in her life to be careful. she's going to text the family and try and make sure they're all good but beyond that she doesn't want to let some weirdness change her day to day life and make things unbearable. it's not that she doesn't care but she can't halt her life every two months when washington gets wild

starters (1/?): marlene mckinnon

gerard of greenleigh: anxious frog dad continues to be anxious, sort of. listen, murders aren't exactly new considering the life he was living back home, but still! everyone here is making it sound like a big deal so he feels like it's a big deal!! he is not investigating at all. he is trying to make sure ylfa and ros are safe and then just keep his nose out of it

starters (1/?): ylfa

glinda upland: honestly? she knows she is not the type to solve a murder. she is trying to stay out of it, and just not be lurking around alone. will drag people to do just about anything with her so that there's safety in numbers, but that's about it. she's not getting too worked up by it. she'll talk theories with some people but she won't be good at it and may just confuse everyone involved

starters (1/?): irina denali

gu zi: concerned for sure, but also doesn't know what he could actually do about it. checking in on the people he knows, but otherwise is trying to stay out of it and let the authorities handle it

inej ghafa: so many concerns. first and foremost she's looking out for her people, especially the unaware ones who might not be able to defend themselves as well. after that she's definitely doing a lot of lurking, trying to grab whatever information she can. she means well and will try and help people if it's ever needed, and is sort of looking into things, but from a much more quiet point of view. she's not throwing herself into it for everyone to see

starters (1/?) : jesper fahey

jin ling: tired! will threaten to fight if you seem weird even though he shouldn't! trying to keep track of seven thousand family members. not going anywhere without his dog who will attack on command. he's worked up but what else is new

starters (1/?): wei wuxian

lily evans: trying!! to stay out of it. she's nosy, and has a good sense of judgement, so she could wind up looking into things and being involved even though she knows it's not the smart thing to do, but her intention truly is to keep her distance and let the authorities handle it.

luo qingyang: another one who would like to avoid drama as much as possible. this isn't her problem, though she'll definitely be a little more defensive. carrying her sword around more than normal and will pull it out if it feels necessary, but not running around trying to solve and fucking mysteries.

madoka kaname: very stressed! wants to help but doesn't really know how. honestly she's mostly staying out of it but if you catch her near a murder sight or evidence she would be very easy to talk into investigating cause she wants to do the write thing

starters (1/?): homura akemi

mei nianqing: tired. looking for jun wu cause man is convinced he has something to do with all of this, but isn't doing a lot to actively solve or fix anything outside of that. this is a problem for younger people

nico di angelo: mostly uncaring. he doesn't think anyone's gonna come kill him and even if they do like ? cool he apparently comes right back. he's worried about his sisters but beyond that man is truly chilling with mcdonalds. life goes on.

nie huaisang: keeping up with the news but beyond that staying out of it. this is an art student, what the fuck is he supposed to do about it. if you approach him and he thinks you seem shady he will absolutely start screaming at the top of his lungs with zero remorse. he would rather be an annoying idiot than dead. can talk theory and be pretty smart about it if you make him focus long enough.

pearl: this is a human problem which means it's not her problem, though she also doesn't respect the cops and would tamper with evidence on the basis of like "i can definitely figure this out faster how has no one been caught yet." will investigate if she's around the area or someone asks her to but isn't going out of her way to do it

princess zelda: is this her problem? no. is zelda a nosy little know-it-all who will have a hard time completely staying away from it? absolutely yes. she knows it's not the smart thing but will keep trying to head around areas where bodies were found and look around. someone please either get her to relax or encourage the bad behavior.

shang qinghua: highkey staying out of it. this just is not his problem, and he's not investigating murders without any money being offered. honestly, he is not that worried. like he'll carry a knife with him in case but he's surprisingly good at surviving, and he doesn't consider himself particularly fun to murder. just don't sneak up on him for the next two weeks or you might wind up with an accidental stab wound

starters (1/?): qi yan

shi qingxuan: trying to stay out of it. a little worried that one of the two morally dubious people she's close to could be involved somehow but absolutely does not want to ask. qingxuan is head empty though and is relatively still way too trustworthy throughout this whole thing and would be way too easy to murder.

starters (1/?): ling wen

toph beifong: relatively unbothered. toph can take care of herself and knows that. confident she could body like anyone in washington if need be. if someone wants to play detective they'll take backup for fun, but isn't going to run in and do anything herself out of the blue.

starters: (2/?): ty lee, katara

victor nikiforov: another fool who is way too casual about the whole thing. sure there's murderers out there but he's still gonna go out and do his thing. why would they come after him? he's too handsom to be murdered. someone should probably attempt to talk some sense into him. he's not investigating, but if he comes across anything that feels weird he will post on instagram about it

yin yu: he's not investigating unless he's explicitly told to. he tries to be a good person, but he's pretty sure you don't need to jump into solving a murder to qualify for that. a little careful because he's the type to keep to quieter areas and the shadows and probably realizes that maybe he has to go out into crowds more until this is handled, but that's his biggest struggle. will tell people to chill and not run in and play hero if he has to

zagreus: speaking of running in and playing hero, this man absolutely would be like "alright, i have to lend and hand and solve things!" sticking his nose anywhere and everywhere, sharing theories with people, being way up in people's faces about getting things solved. he's annoying but he means well.

zhongli: another tired old man. he's trying to keep the people he cares about safe, especially since a lot (if not all) of them are young and reckless and he knows they're going to run head first into this stuff. he's not investigating, but does have a lot of knowledge and is happy to sit and talk theories with anyone who is.

starters (1/?): amelia shepherd

[clickerflight]

Whump week: "Tell me how to fix this"

@week-of-whump

Masterlist

Part 1

I don't think I've written the actual prompts into any of the bits I have ready and written. Like, word for word. I enjoy dancing around the words. IDK why and I'm not sorry. The two characters in this bit are in the same world as the 1st prompt. I wanted to introduce the two pairs before they knew each other.

Content: Surgery in a non-hospital setting, lots of blood, missing limb, removing a body modification, restrained, I honestly don't know how to tag this one

.................................................

Matsu had known this was a bad idea even before he started the surgery by Ralph’s side, but this was so much worse than he could have been prepared for. 

The woman laying on the table, a blanket tied across her hips and around the table at her request, bit hard into another blanket, grunting. She had her head turned away from where they were working, sweat dripping out of her hair. Her hair was shifting between colors in her pain, as was her eye color as she squinted at the far wall. 

Matsu looked back to what they were working on. Matsu might have been trapped in a world where the most advanced technology to be found were a few aqueducts, but he originally came from a modern world, cars, phones, toilets. Stars, how he missed toilets. But even being from a place like that, this was different. Complicated. 

The woman’s name was Kira. She had found her way into the village, a blanket tied to hide what Matsu had assumed was her left arm. She asked around for the surgeons, the only ones for miles and had been pointed to Ralph and Matsu’s home. The old man had let her in, Matsu had been pulled in to learn something from whatever this woman needed help with, and then she dropped the blanket that had been tied around her torso. 

Matsu had registered the metal socket on her shoulder where a prosthetic arm supposedly attached, the metal woven into the skin, it seemed, and he had also clocked the redness around the metal and the tightness around Kira’s eyes. 

“Usually, I’d get readjustments every few months with doctors to keep this from happening,” she’d explained. “But they don’t even have a steam engine around here. It’s going to kill me. I need it removed.”

She couldn’t be put to sleep for the surgery because she would need to help them get it out since she knew a bit about how it worked, and any other pain numbing mixtures and potions they had would make her woozy, so they gave her what they could, rubbed in ointments to numb the area a little, and started cutting. 

“Steady, Matsu,” Ralph said gruffly. The old man was laser focused on the task in front of him and Matsu nodded. The metal was almost threaded into Kira’s flesh, woven in deep enough that the numbing poultices couldn’t touch it. There was blood everywhere. 

“Alright,” Ralph said carefully. “I can see some of the inner mechanisms. I’ll reapply the numbing potion. Please explain to Matsu how to proceed.”

Kira spit out the fabric, teeth bared like a wild thing. “Matsu, what do you see.”

Matsu pulled the flesh gently down to look, holding his breath despite having a mask on to keep from breathing into the wound. “There’s a bar with screws going into the bone. I see a tube with some wires in it.”

“Do you see a little lever at my armpit?” she hissed. 

“Yeah.”

“Press that.”

Matsu did and there was a soft click. The exposed half of the socket folded up on a hinge so he could get to the screws and wires inside. 

“You’ll have to cut the release out of me,” Kira said, now looking at the socket, her expression now fierce, but Matsu could see a hint of fear in her eyes. 

“We’ll numb it so it won’t hurt as much-”

“No, I’m not worried about that.”

“What are you worried about?”

“Those wires,” she said, eyeing the tube. “I’m trying to remember what order they need to be pulled out in so we don’t damage my spinal cord.”

Matsu stared at her. “What, are we playing ‘defuse the bomb’ with your ability to walk!?”

“Unfortunately.”

She groaned as Ralph started dabbing the numbing potion into the wounds. 

“Let’s start with removing the catch here. Then, we can sort out the wires.”

Matsu nodded and soon they cut the catch out. Kira panted on the table, foamed up spittle forming at the corners of her mouth as her eyes glazed over from the pain. 

“Hey, hey,” Matsu said, and with great effort she turned her attention to him again. “Tell me how to deal with the wires.”

She huffed, a faint smile on her face. “You’re cute when you talk like that.”

Matsu wrinkled his nose. “Really? Is now really the time for that?”

“Habit.”

“Habit? You flirt when you’re nervous?”

“Oh, shut up. What colors are the wires again?”

Matsu grumbled as he wiped off the tubing. “Uhh, green, black, and yellow.”

He glanced at Ralph who shrugged. “I’m color blind, this one’s on you.”

Matsu wiped his face with his forearm and sighed. “Kay. How do I get this tubing off?”

“It should unscrew.”

Matsu gently coaxed the tubing around until it came off. He pulled the tubing back, watching it fold along prepared lines as he pushed it back. He then looked down at the wires. 

“Do you know…”

Kira bit her lip. Her chest was rising and falling very quickly and reached out, grabbing Matsu’s hand. He held hers for a moment, watching her close her eyes, tears running down her face. 

“‘M Scared,” she whispered. 

“I know,” Matsu said gently, “I’ll get you through this. Just give me somewhere to start.”

She nodded. “I-In techno magic black is command, green is soul, and yellow i-is body…..” She took a few breaths and opened her eyes. They settled on something in between red and orange and Matsu realized she was matching his eye color. “I’m a techno mage. I studied this, I know this. Or, I can at least guess my way through this.”

He nodded encouragingly. “It…. needs to be disconnected from the soul first, Tug on the green one, gently. And please, please don’t pull any of the others out yet. There has to be a cool down between each one, I think.”

Matsu nodded and released her hand. He turned and touched the purifier amulet to clean his hand and turned back again, reaching in. He pinched The black and yellow to hold them in place and tugged the green out. He froze, listening as Ralph said, “Can you still feel this?”

Kira nodded.

“Which toe am I touching?”

“Pinky toe. This one,” she said, wiggling her foot. 

“How long do we have to wait between each one?” Matsu asked. 

She licked her lips. “You’re good to do the black one, I think. We’ll have to wait longer in between the AH AH oooh hssssssssssss.”

“What?” Matsu asked, looking up from the black wire he pulled out. 

“Felt weird,” she whimpered. “I think you touched it to something. I’m fine. Just…. Ahhhhhhhh.”

“Sorry.”

“‘S Okay.”

He put his hand on her chest, feeling her heartbeat as Ralph said, “Which toe am I touching, dear?”

“M-middle toe. Foot farthest from you.”

“Good.”

They waited in silence, Kira’s hand on Matsu’s wrist. 

“You wanna go on a date after this?” she asked, eyes slitted.

Matsu rolled his eyes. “Oh sure. I’ll be up to help bandage you every evening. So romantic.”

She chuckled, closing her eyes. “Oh, it’s fun when they play along.”

“You dated many medics before?”

“Oh no. No. Was rescued by a … a…. What do they call them in this language? Guard? Had a bad client and he rescued me. We dated for a bit before he moved.”

“Guess it’s a habit for you, then. How much longer till the next wire?”

“A few more minutes.”

Kira continued to breathe, slowing her mind down and waiting in silence. 

“Alright, pretty boy,” she said eventually, making Matsu chuckle. “Last one. Ralph, you might have to hold me down. Pull it out hard and fast.”

Ralph came over, holding her over the shoulders and watched as Matsu took hold of the last wire. He didn’t count, he didn’t warn her. He yanked it and stepped away. 

She screamed, writhing on the table, though it seemed her legs were still working as Matsu almost took one to the side. 

She calmed down, twitching slightly. “Ooooh, not fun,” she whispered. She looked at the socket and sighed. “Should be easy now. Unscrew from the bone and cut it out… in my bag there is a panel. When you cut the socket out there will be a place where the wires were plugged in. Put that panel on there and close me up….. Can you knock me out now?”

“Can do,” Ralph said, walking over to grab a potion. “Relax now, dear. We’ve got you.”

……………………………………………

Matsu knocked on the door and heard Kira call him in. He opened it to find her laying in bed. He sighed internally with relief. He had been worried that she was the type to refuse to stay in bed and, at this point, he wasn’t sure if he could say no to her. 

She almost purred when she saw him, her eyes turning vibrant colors. She was on a hefty dose of painkillers, but the reaction still made him flush.

“You here for our date? What, this has to be the third one now,” she said, reaching her hand out to him. He took it and was surprised when he was jerked forward. She kissed his knuckles and he stared at her, his mind resembling nothing so much as tv static. 

“I think I might have to try out dating a medic.”

...............................................

Part 3

Thoughts from the writer/artist

[groggydog]

The Familiar: Post-Mortem for a Crow

(originally posted here, on the IntFic forums)

Hi all. I wasn’t originally going to do this, but I got an itch and just wanted to have a final send-off for my beloved bird, Fran, and the world of Gennemont.

The Familiar was always intended to be an emotional piece, first and foremost. To that end, I believe that I was successful. But I have plenty of other thoughts about the game’s core pieces.

On Mechanics

From the start, I decided that I would take a more rudimentary approach to the puzzles with the full knowledge that it would almost certainly appeal less to the more experienced members of the IF community. That was fine by me. I wanted to share this with my parents, my nephews, my friends - none of whom actively play IF games. And I think I threaded things well enough that people were satisfied even if they viewed the puzzles as very easy.

Perhaps the best advice I received in terms of puzzle-making was when I was stuck on the final ingredient puzzle, and someone from the interact-if Discord recommended I follow the old Aesop fable about the crow and the stone, and it felt like such a duh moment to me that I just had to include it in my game.

(More on art and characters after the jump)

For the rest, I tried to have either multiple solutions to everything or enough interactivity (like with the letter-writing sequence which I think was really well-received) that it didn’t matter so much.

I believe that limiting the vocabulary to just a few words (TAKE, DROP, CAW, LOOK, PECK) was absolutely the correct path, even if it ended up limiting me in many very real ways. I think most of the critical feedback stemmed from that decision and the puzzles. There was always going to be a low upper limit on my puzzles’ complexity after I did that, but I think it’s just silly enough that it works overall. If I were a better coder, I might have done it in a more interesting way. But I’m not, and so I’ll take what I can get.

My code is a mess. It will never see the light of day. But if you have questions just DM me!

On Art

I spent so much time on that dang art, y’all. I needed six months to knock out 30+ pixel-art headers and even then it felt like a stretch. But again, this was important to me: I knew that pixel art would both play into Adventuron’s nature and heighten the emotional nature of the story. To that end, again, I think I was successful.

For all of you had said it felt like a Ghibli story - I could not have received higher praise. The background details of the story were certainly inspired by Ghibli, but much of the art was as well. I referenced heavily scenes from Howl’s Moving Castle and one my personal favorites, Kiki’s Delivery Service, to capture a specific tone and mood.

I used a combination of MS Paint and Aesprite to make my scenes. Aesprite was particularly useful for scenes where I needed to reference perspective lines and could change the opacity of layers. I would highly recommend purchasing it if you’re hoping to do something similar. Some things I cheesed, like using the “thought bubble” tool in MS Paint (translated, flipped, skewed) to make trees and blood/attack effects throughout the game. Adventuron also worked really well for this. I just made the images at 192x64px and the game engine happily scaled things up for me with no interpolation needed.

The piece I’m most proud of, however, is the owl. This thing took me at least a dozen hours of hard work. I know it’s silly to ramble on about art on an IF forum, but I do think these things elevated my game a lot.

There are some art pieces that I wish I could have had more time with: the Opera House in particular was challenging to me. But overall, I was quite pleased with the final portfolio for this game.

On Characters & Story

I am extraordinarily competitive by nature, and so of course a large part of me was hoping I might still squeak into Best of Show even as it became evident just how good my competition was.

But now, after all the ribbons have been awarded, what I feel is mostly just happiness that the stories and characters seemed to connect with people. Most of the praise for my game had to do with either the art or the characters, and it warms my heart to no small degree to hear that. I wanted everyone you interacted with in Gennemont (except, perhaps, the dapper man) to feel like they had a real depth to them. I think I managed to do that.

Again, drawing inspiration from Ghibli, I wanted to inspire both a little bit of sadness and a little bit of happiness throughout the game. There were the really silly bits like helping Cecile write her letter (which came to me as a random thought and I coded in a frenzy immediately), but I also think the direness of Fran and even Hazel the Dormouse’s situations came through without being overbearing.

I was also pleased that I seemed to have dialed in the intensity appropriately. You cannot lose the final encounter with Hunleff, of course, but I think it’s just scary enough that the thought enters your mind.

Especially [here] on Tumblr, Fran seems to have struck a chord. She’s plucky and brash in a way I never could be, and she just sort of sprung to life all on her own. It’s rare and so enjoyable to have a protagonist - especially in an IF game! - who does that. I have a new love and appreciation for crows as a result of researching for her. I also had a great time coding in things like the nearly three dozen types of CAW responses you could get. When the ribbons came in, I was tempted to just choose the “Sweetest Bird” one and be done with it. Fran made this game what it is.

The emotional heart of this story was always going to be Fran and her adventure, and despite the game’s other shortcomings I feel intensely proud with what I accomplished on that front. It’s hard to do it in a parser game, and I learned a lot in pursuit of that goal.

[mistrdctr]

Pinned Post.

Mistrdctr - a headcanon-heavy, probably a little canon-divergent and mainly 'Dr. Strange' as well as 'Dr. Strange: MoM'- based MCU-portrayal of Dr. Stephen Strange. 18+, Mun & Muse 30+. Mutuals only, very selective. Blog created: Dec. 2023 | WIP. Fluctuating activity. Mun is about to rewatch all movies but it might take a while.

Queue currently posting 2 times within 24hrs. (IF I manage to fill it, that is)

Carrd ♦ Memes [always open] ♦ Promo 1.

About Stephen: Character Sheet | Short Introduction | Headcanons | Musings Stephen and his cloak | This portrayal of Stephen is not, and has never been, the Sorcerer Supreme - a post.

Blog Design credit: calirph Promo credit: hyruleshop

My other blogs: @respondedinkind [my main, my love, my heart, my soul] @barebcnes [Extremely slow]

Rules for easier accessibility under the cut (Forever WIP):

First of all: I am here to have a good time. My portrayal of Stephen is going to be of more or less casual nature, but that doesn't mean that I don't intend to portray him seriously. My knowledge, though, is limited; This means his portrayal won't be highly in-depth and might be missing things here and there. I am also absolutely not familiar with the comics, so zero knowledge in that regard, and still need to rewatch most movies (have rewatched Dr. Strange 1 & 2 so far, still missing all the other movies where he appears - I have seen those in the past but it is been a long while). If you cannot handle my lack of said knowledge, this blog might not be for you. Otherwise: I'm looking forward to interact with you!

Some basic RP rules: No god-modding (some things are allowed if it makes sense in the context of the RP: My muse following yours into a room etc. That being said, Strange is a sorcerer and he can do some things that might be considered 'god-modding' in a loose sense (e.g. make your muse change location with him in an instant). Be prepared for that to happen.), the mun is absolutely not the muse (means when muse says / does / acts a certain way it does not mean that the mun condones it and/or would act the same), muses can also be wrong (yes, my Stephen might be rude, or have wrong/no knowledge, or misunderstand your muse, and your muse is allowed to do the same as well!), and please communicate with me if there are any issues at hand (I promise I won't bite, but I am highly allergic to talking-behind-my-back kind of stuff. I am almost 34 years old, I can handle communication).

Some blog-specifications: This blog is mutuals-only (non-mutuals are allowed to send in asks about headcanons / muse-development etc), therefore highly-selective, and I might not always reply to threads in the same order they come in; That means I will reply to some threads faster than to others, simply because my excitement fluctuates. That does not mean I don't like interacting with you, I promise. Regarding replying-speed: I am usually quite fast and reply within a few days or a week. In rare cases it can be multiple weeks or a month. You are allowed to ask me about a reply in case I haven't answered in 2 weeks or such, but please don't pester me about them. Another thing about replying / threads: I might drop threads after a while if I feel there's simply not much existing anymore that can be added / written in any way. I might not inform you about this decision but you are absolutely allowed to ask me if I did - and, in case I did, I am almost always happy to start a new thread from a new perspective or after a time-jump or something to have our muses interact more! I just don't like trying to force-squeeze interaction into a thread that would have died otherwise already. I prefer doing new threads to keep things fresh and exciting. This blog is also 18+, means I won't interact with any muns under the age of 18 and I honestly prefer if you are above 21 years old. NSFW will be present in various shapes. I put replies containing smut under a 'read more'. I also tag my NSFW-things with either Suggestive; or UnSFW;, so you can block the tags if needed.

More RP-stuff: I love Crossovers, AU's, completely made-up stuff, timetravel-shenanigans, Universe-shenanigans and whatever one can think of. I am also open for OC's and Canons alike. OC's need to be fleshed-out and provide information for me to find easily. I will scroll through blogs that follow me and check whether our writing-styles match and judge whether I could see us interacting; If I don't, I won't follow back. If I follow you back, I want to write with you - the same goes for if I follow you first! I prefer to interact with non-animated FCs (exceptions are being made for Marvel-comic-muses), and I personally love to include simple icons into my replies. However, I will also adapt and sometimes not use icons - you are very welcome to decide upon whether you want to use some or not. I use small text, but other than that, I don't format my replies much. You are welcome to format as much as you desire to, I simply won't adapt to your style. If you, for any reason, need me to keep my posts as 'regular text' to make it easier for you to read, please tell me and I will totally do that for you. I usualy write quite long replies and prefer multi-para. I only do shorter things rarely and mostly for crack / casual interactions. Please do not reply to my multi-para with a single sentence - you do not need to match my sometimes insane length by any means, but please give me something to work with.

Concering drama / communication: I am not here for drama of any kind, whether it might be personal drama or Marvel / MCU drama. I write with who I want to write, I use whatever FC I want to use, and I have the right to (soft-)block whoever I want to for any given reason. I won't allow rude anons to slide into my askbox; Any kind of rude anon ask will be deleted on sight.

Regarding shipping: I love shipping, I'm not going to lie about it. However, I am also here for all the platonic ships of any kind. I prefer to write M/M ships and for some personal favorite ships of mine I might even do some insta-shipping, but I also prefer to have chemistry lead to our muses to get close to each other. F/M ships have to develop over time, the chemistry has to be perfect, and will, most likely, rarely happen - so don't expect your muse to be shipped with mine unless the chemistry works. I'm sorry about that, but this is for my personal comfort. It's nothing against your muse in any shape or form. Some favorite ships of mine: IronStrange and KhanStrange (yes, I like some odd ships and no, I don't care if you approve of it or not), but if the chemistry works, any ship will turn into my favorite, honestly. I do not ship Pal.mer.Str.ange. There's a reason it never worked out and I personally will never see Stephen and Christine ending up with each other in any Universe. Regarding her: My Stephen has separated himself successfully from her and does not run after her anymore, doesn't matter much at which point of his timeline an RP is going to happen (there's exceptions, of course - the closer to the 'beginning' of Dr. Strange's origins, the more likely he is to still have feelings for her).

About the mun: Hi, you can call me L., she/her/they/them, I am 34 years old, married and mother of two cats. I am honestly just a bean; My rules might come across as a bit strict or written in a very serious manner, but I myself am just a wrinkly potato that's screaming way too much about favorite fandoms and ships and I am awkward as hell. I promise I am actually nice, just very cringe at times (lol), so if you want to contact me, feel free (especially when we are mutuals; I might not answer non-mutuals asking 'do you want to RP?'-inquiries because those make me slightly uncomfortable… :'D)